Wednesday 1st March 2017
White eggs!!
The poultry became a little braver today although with the weather being very windy and at times very wet, staying inside was the preferred option for many anyway. Mucking out today was a doddle, just one and a bit truggs of poo-ey straw removed, as opposed to the usual two to three. 'Tis just as well as the poultry compost heaps are a little on the large side!
And so to the photos, well this is our Red Leghorn cross (RLC) - dad is either our Indian Game or our Brahma cross. Mum is our Leghorn (surprisingly), she of I-only-lay-eggs-for-one-month-a-year fame. Well her one month last year was April and this is the result of one of those precious eggs. Leghorns lay white eggs and so it was rather lovely that when RLC began to lay in the autumn, her eggs were white too, although we were rather hoping she may be a bit more prolific than her mother!
And here’s the thing. Our delight at having another white egg layer was somewhat short-lived because as soon as the poultry lockdown began, her egg laying stopped. Overall it slowed down across all our birds but in the last three weeks or so, it has built up again, with a lot of our September born birds coming into lay for the first time. However, RLC was not joining in this frantic egg laying activity at all and we began to think her mum’s non egg-laying genes had been passed on after all.
And then today, on the birds first full day out (yesterday was just a ¾ day), little miss RLC joined Jack in the barn when she was mucking out the goats and proceeded to settle herself in a hay rack. An hour or so later, Jack went back to look and discovered the white egg in the photo. Four hours later, she discovered the other three as well!!
Before the lockdown, RLC always laid in the barn and yet not having access to it for three months was enough to stop her laying completely!! Quite extraordinary!!
Strictly speaking, the birds should stay in their poultry paddock as part of the new DEFRA Avian Flu Prevention guidelines but then it is only a few metres between the poultry paddock and the barn and if the paddock extended to the barn, it would be okay. (So actually the instruction to 'keep the birds in their enclosure' is perhaps a tad ambiguous!!!).
And tomorrow’s task is to discover who the other three barn layers are...
And here’s the thing. Our delight at having another white egg layer was somewhat short-lived because as soon as the poultry lockdown began, her egg laying stopped. Overall it slowed down across all our birds but in the last three weeks or so, it has built up again, with a lot of our September born birds coming into lay for the first time. However, RLC was not joining in this frantic egg laying activity at all and we began to think her mum’s non egg-laying genes had been passed on after all.
And then today, on the birds first full day out (yesterday was just a ¾ day), little miss RLC joined Jack in the barn when she was mucking out the goats and proceeded to settle herself in a hay rack. An hour or so later, Jack went back to look and discovered the white egg in the photo. Four hours later, she discovered the other three as well!!
Before the lockdown, RLC always laid in the barn and yet not having access to it for three months was enough to stop her laying completely!! Quite extraordinary!!
Strictly speaking, the birds should stay in their poultry paddock as part of the new DEFRA Avian Flu Prevention guidelines but then it is only a few metres between the poultry paddock and the barn and if the paddock extended to the barn, it would be okay. (So actually the instruction to 'keep the birds in their enclosure' is perhaps a tad ambiguous!!!).
And tomorrow’s task is to discover who the other three barn layers are...